it's, simply put, the money you pay to social security and medicare. that tax cut is due to expire at the end of this month also. so we asked jim axelrod to tell us what that will mean. >> reporter: the payroll tax cut is giving this family an extra $70 month to spend. john mejia is a maintenance man in new jersey. are you paying attention to what's going on in washington right now? >> of course we are. >> reporter: the mejia's $50,000 a year income puts them almost in the middle of american households. if the payroll tax cut is not extended, those families would pay an average of $1,035 a year more in social security taxes. do you have room to cut back? >> no, sir, i don't. i guess we'll do some type of magic like we do every month here in our household, that's what i call it. >> reporter: if the tax cut expires, pay cut contributions will go from 4.% to 6.2%, that's $115 billion a year that will go to deficit reduction instead of being pumped into the economy. heidi cherholts is an economist. >> it's less money for consumers to spend that means the d